


Fields Rolling On

by superfundsite (orphan_account)



Category: Red Dwarf (UK TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Episode: s06e02 Legion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:35:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24078355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/superfundsite
Summary: Rimmer has doubts about finding Red Dwarf, and what it could mean for his new relationship with Lister.
Relationships: Dave Lister/Arnold Rimmer
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34





	Fields Rolling On

**Author's Note:**

> Fic request for a dear friend of mine, who wanted R/L on a planet whilst repairing starbug and getting to talk, post-Legion. I forgot the repairing starbug bit, sorry :^y  
> The title comes from the lyrics of Strawberry Blonde by Mitski.

“Cool, innit?”

Rimmer shrugs, his cheeks tinged pink and his arms folded across his chest. The wind blows through his hair and ruffles the soft brown curls atop his head.

“I mean… it’s nice.” Rimmer looks out at the picturesque vista before him. 

“Yeah.” Lister sits down on the soft grass beneath their feet.

They’re sitting in the valley of a small planetoid, one mostly covered in ocean and temperate forests. There were two large continents, one of them scored with an inland sea, almost like a donut.

They had landed on that one, and Lister had brought Rimmer to it. "A little test run to see how your lightbee likes the great outdoors. Whaddya say, Rimmer? Cat and Kryten are gonna go south, we can go north and see what's up."

Rimmer had originally planned to stay onboard and organize his Hammond organ Discs alphabetically, but he was convinced, somehow, to pick himself up by the bootstraps and join them on their excursion to the great outdoors.

Now, as he sits with Lister in the bowl between two periwinkle ranges, he feels his stomach knot and bunch up, a sudden wave of anxiety washing over him. His right leg begins to shake madly, before it begins to jump up and down like a drill onto the soft grass. 

Lister looks over at him, a wash of concern on his face.

Rimmer’s hands are clenched tightly in the grass, not ripping it from the root, but maintaining a firm grip on the blades as if to hold them prisoner in his palms. 

“Rimmer, is there something wrong?”

“No.”

“You look stressed.” Lister says, as he lays back amongst the pillow soft grass. The breeze makes it seem as though they’re atop an endless chlorophyll wave, with patches of dense wildflowers. Their sweet scent wafted down the valley occasionally, smelling like honey and spice. Lister closes his eyes, trying to breathe it in now. It was the nicest place they’d visited in ages, and there seemed to be no sign of life apart from insects and small animals. Kryten had guessed that it was originally terraformed to become a ski resort similar to the extinct Swiss Alps back on Earth, but was abandoned once money ran out.

As much as Lister loved the Sound of Music, he thought to himself that a view like this would be boring if one saw it day after day. He closes his eyes.

The vibrations of Rimmer’s foot makes it hard to relax, though.

“Something on your mind, Rimmer?”

“No!”

“Seems like it, you’re going to drill a hole clean through the crust if you keep on like that.”

Rimmer’s nostrils flare in anger, before he looks down at his leg, and the mess of uprooted grass and soil that he’s left. A tint of red covers his cheeks, and he curls up, hugging his knees to his chest.

“There’s nothing wrong, really.” 

Rimmer chances a quick glance at Lister.

Lister had removed his leather jacket, the mangy thing lying under his head in a bundle, as a makeshift pillow, and his deerstalker was safely tucked up into the center of it. Lister was only wearing an old, not so stained t-shirt, in a shade of canary yellow, with a faded London Jets slogan on it. 

The way that Lister is seated makes the muscles of his arms stand out, as they’re stretched up and beneath his head. It makes his shirt ride up a few inches. It was already too small, worn thin with Kryten’s diligent washing, and now, as it gave Rimmer a clear view of his belly, and the trail of coarse black curls that went down past the already low-cut waistline of his leather pants, Rimmer felt heat creep up from underneath his collar.

His skin looks soft, Rimmer thinks to himself. The flex of Lister’s muscles just beneath that layer of warm fat and softness, as he props himself up on his right elbow to face Rimmer, hip cocked in an almost teasing way, makes Rimmer want to see more.

“You’re lying,” Lister says, simply. His dark brown eyes lock onto Rimmer’s face, as if tracking for any tell Rimmer can give him (and he would find one, he’s spent hours watching Rimmer every day, not that there’s much else to look at, and the only person who it wasn’t awkward to play strip poker with). 

Of course, Rimmer gives all of them. His upper lip twitches, he sniffs, etc etc. 

“I’m fine.”

“You’re all balled up like an overgrown toddler, you’re not fine. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing and everything.”

“Rimmer, why don’t you just relax?”

“I try, but I can’t-”

Lister shushes him. He pats his chest, and lays back down.

Rimmer looks at him and sighs.

He complies, and Lister grins as he feels Rimmer curl up again, this time with his head on Lister’s chest, arms loosely tucked to himself.

“Is that better?”

“It’s… I’m just worried. I never thought I’d miss Red Dwarf. It was like our home, even if it was awful and ugly and had a senile gimboid looking after it. And as much as I miss it, I feel like I’d miss this too. Just gallivanting through space, together. The fold-out bed. And we’re… we’re together now. What if you change your mind when we find the Dwarf?”

“Rimmer, I’m not going to stop wanting you because we have the Dwarf back. What kind of thinking is that?”

Rimmer shrugs. “I segment everything I think about. Since I was very young, I always tried to divide my thinking, the periods of my life, and I feel like, if we go back to the Dwarf, then… I’m going to lose everything that we found since it was gone. It’s silly, but it’s always such a hangup. I don’t want this to end, Lister. I think I’d go mad if I weren’t with you. I want …. I want this forever. Just us.”

Lister is quiet for a few moments, and he pets Rimmer's hair as he thinks. 

"I feel the same way, kind of." 

"You do?"

"Yeah. I mean, when you think like that for so long, it can be hard not to… y'know, start thinking like this will end when we get to Red Dwarf. But you gotta know, Rimmer, that when we do find it, It's not gonna change how I feel about you. I'm not hooked up with you just 'cos you're the only other human aboard. For all your smeggishness, I do… I do like you." 

Rimmer rolls over to look up at Lister, who kisses his forehead, just next to the H.

"I reckon I might even love you."

Rimmer's heart aches. 

For a moment, they struggle as they get parallel to each other, until Rimmer is on top of Lister, thighs bracketing his hips, arms on either side of his head. Their noses brush, and Lister cranes his neck up for a kiss. 

Rimmer looks down at him, and Lister marvels at the sparks flying in his hazel eyes, suddenly bright and alive.

"You know," he says, clearing his throat, and smiling in a way that wasn't snarky or weasel-like, but instead coy and genuine, "I reckon I might love you too, Lister."

Lister grins. 

"Kiss me, you smeghead."

"Of course, you slime."

Rimmer obliges, over and over again. His lips are soft and warm and have the edge of the fuzz of static that clings to his hard light body, but Lister thinks it's perfect. He hugs Rimmer's body against his own as they move against each other, kissing and laughing, quiet and joyous in their little world.

\---

When they get back to Starbug, Lister's hair has little bits and pieces of grass stuck everywhere, streaks of chlorophyll marking up his shirt. Rimmer is looking rumpled as he walks a bit stiffly, but there's a glow to his cheeks as he laces his fingers together with Lister's.

Cat barely gets a whiff of them before exclaiming, "I still can't believe it! Don't you two have standards?" and yowling as he spins away from them, off to slink about the cargo bay, and Kryten chides Lister for getting his shirt stained.

As Kryten rambles about how difficult it is to find a way to remove the various stains on Lister's clothing without seriously endangering its structural integrity, Lister and Rimmer just nod and Lister smiles when Rimmer looks over at him and joins in, never one to pass up an opportunity to chew Lister out.

Lister uses the same old tactic for getting Rimmer to shut up.

He kisses him, and as Rimmer's cheeks flush bright red, and he gets up and hauls Lister to his feet to drag him off to their room, Kryten shakes his head. 

He might have trouble getting accustomed to the idea of Lister and Rimmer being together, after all their differences and conflicts, but if he had to scrub one more grass stain out of his shirt after a romantic escapade to a planet or, gaspingly realizing, the botanical garden aboard Red Dwarf, he might actually go mad.


End file.
